Finding a job and keeping it are becoming sources of uncertainty even for children from America’s wealthiest families. A challenge that until recently was associated mainly with the middle class and low-income families is now worrying billionaire parents as well.
The scale of the problem is reflected in U.S. employment data: unemployment among recent graduates has remained at 5.6%, while underemployment affected 42.5% of them at the end of 2025. That level of underemployment had not been recorded since 2020.
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The uncertainty is particularly acute among those aged 22 to 35. Young people in this age group are facing obstacles both in finding jobs and in keeping their positions in technology, law and healthcare, fields long regarded as secure and prestigious.
A university degree no longer necessarily translates into a stable income. Meanwhile, economists warn that the expanding use of artificial intelligence could profoundly transform the entry-level positions through which recent graduates typically begin their careers.
Faced with growing competition for jobs and the increasing role of artificial intelligence, billionaire parents are rethinking both their financial arrangements and the wealth they intend to leave their children.
Financial advisers who work with extremely wealthy families say their clients now see this as a concrete problem. They question whether their children will be able to build careers and achieve the financial independence enjoyed by previous generations.
Tom Thiegs, who leads leadership and legacy planning at Ascent Private Capital Management, part of U.S. Bank, told Fortune magazine that billionaires do not lack the financial means to support their children. However, he said, they often struggle to understand what support their children need to move forward in circumstances so different from those they experienced themselves.
Wealthy families are increasingly acknowledging the changing employment landscape, notes Patrick Dwyer, an executive at Aligned by NewEdge Wealth. The wealth management company manages the finances of clients with fortunes ranging from around $100 million to more than $1 billion.
Dwyer stresses that parents need to rethink how they fund their children. That planning, he says, should also account for the possibility that their children may need to retrain professionally at the age of 33.
This has prompted families with substantial wealth to consider transferring a larger share of it to their children, financial advisers explain. The aim is to provide financial stability in a future in which neither a university degree nor family background offers the guarantees of professional success they once did.
For the children of billionaires, then, the issue extends beyond the size of the inheritance they will receive. The question is also whether they will be able to build independent careers of their own as the job market undergoes rapid change.
